


Baby, you shine too bright to hide

by hellashortie



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Hunters, Alternate Universe - Wolves, Character Death, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Forbidden Love, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Multi, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-07-19 23:37:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19982443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellashortie/pseuds/hellashortie
Summary: As Donghyuck teared the other wolf's throat apart, deep inside he knew he did the wrong thing. As he got off the canine, the feeling of being afraid filled his body. He was scared of what Jaehyun would say about this, about the punishment the Old Ones would give to him. But when he looked up at the scared boy, whose knife was on the ground, he couldn't help but feel proud, that he could protect him from his miserable future. He didn't feel embarrassed at all, if he had leafs on him, if his fur was dirty, if there was too much blood on him. Not at all.. He didn't care about what the other thought of him. That was not the reason he felt he would be blushing right now in his other form..





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first fic, so excuse me if the chapters won't be that frequent i'm still figuring things out  
> I spent a lot of time choosing pictures, tried to find the boys in each of them. In my opinion, it is accurate, but i hope you guys can see the similarity i see tooTT
> 
> [Renjun](https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/mexican-grey-wolf-stock-gty-jef-180716_hpMain_4x3_992.jpg)  
> [Chenle](https://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/photography/bigs/03981-Grey-Wolf.jpg)  
> [Yuta](https://live.staticflickr.com/8641/16478011948_6a2eef40e3_b.jpg)  
> [Jisung](https://www.alaska.org/assets/content/cache/made/assets/content/advice/Alaska_Species_Guide/Land%20Mammals/580_387_c1/Grey_Wolf1147917354_img_9398.jpg)  
> [Jeno](https://www.mmitextiles.com/media/1441/wolf-gray-wolf.jpg?quality=70)  
> [Donghyuck](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/animal-jam-clans-1/images/2/20/Gideon-on-tumblr.jpg/revision/latest)  
> [Kun](https://deinetiere.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/mexikanischer-grauer-wolf.jpg)  
> [Jaehyun](https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-ac00eb6c069bc4959f1b9b46fee1d22b)

Blood was dripping down onto the ground from his jaw, the deer’s body was still warm as he ate. It was dinner time already, even though he was alone, what was against the traditions, he enjoyed it without the usual company. Wolves are tradition followers and they always hunt down the dinner together to bring it back to the den, sometimes to cook it, sometimes to eat it raw.

However, modern generation wolves have been changing, they started going against rules and traditions, started seeing the world from another view. This has been going on for a few decades already, so the Old Ones have set new, not so gruesome punishments, as it was in the past. They abolished death penalties and brought in exile. If someone has committed a great crime and can’t get away with it by smaller punishments, should be exiled.

Even though Donghyuck knew the best what those punishments are, having experienced almost all of them, he still went against the rules. There was something in him that was different from the other wolves, that was stronger in him than in the others. Maybe it was the self-sufficiency that he felt. Wolves always lived in packs, always worked as a team, as a family. They depended on eachother, counted on eachother in almost every situation. However, Donghyuck has always been independent, from the day he could get on all four and change into his camouflage form. He wouldn’t ask for help, first he would always try to find ways to solve the problem by himself. Apart from this, his pack could always count on him, because they are his family. He truly loves them.

As he finished his dinner and started licking himself clean of all the dirt and blood, the sun has already set. He knew he would get reprimanded, as all the times he has done this. His parents didn’t like it when he did things in his own way, they were afraid he would get more serious punishments, as they said. But Donghyuck knew, that actually they were just afraid that he would be that one in a hundred wolves, that would eventually leave his pack behind to form a new one by himself. Even though that would be impossible, because his rank was omega and they could hardly ever form a pack by themselfs, in lack of their leader capabilities.

And they didn’t know that Donghyuck never ever had those thoughts, because the last thing that would come up in his mind was leaving his pack. He stretched his front legs and yawned. He decided to not bring back the leftover, as the pack has gone hunting anyways. He went back on the path he knew too well, smelling his own scent, but knowing it by heart. He could easily blend into his environment, due to his fur coat’s colorization. His light brown fur with gray patches could make him look invisible in the mountains. The big dark gray spot that surrended his head like a beanie made it easy for him to look through the leafs and bushes at his prey, without them noticing it.

As he is an omega, his stature is quite petite. This doesn’t mean higher ranked wolves should always look out for him and save him if he gets into risky situations. He’s just not as dominant as other ranked wolves are, maybe not as strong as them either, but he can stand his ground against one of them. If he has good strategies, that is. But being a tracker makes things easier for him. In a pack, wolves each have different roles and as his smell is the best in the whole pack, it makes him the only tracker in it. Being in this role for more than 10 years made him better in his skills, meaning that he’s very fast compared to others. His stamina is better than some alpha’s in his pack, he can easily out run them and keep it up for a long time. He can track scents that other wolves can’t even smell by the time that has passed and once he got a hold of it he could never lose the trace. Maybe this is the reason he only gets pity punishments compared to others.

As he got closer to the den and smelled the meat, he got a feeling that he would get a scolding from his brother Jaehyun too. Since he became a non-official pack leader, he started acting like their father a lot more. Donghyuck didn’t like that at all, because that made him a lot stricter and reprimanded him quite often. And sometimes he doesn’t get to see him at all a day.

He didn’t even try to sneek around the fire where all the wolves gathered together for their dinner, knowing his parents and brother already noticed that he wasn’t home. They lived high up in the mountains with the whole pack, the closest house of normal human beings was 20 minutes walk away. It was a dead end, with a roundabout and in its center was where the cooking always took place. They had to give off modern family vibes as the city got more crowded with new people, that’s why they started living in a more human way rather than digging a den in the ground. The younger ones went to the local school that was an hour drive away and the adults tried to find jobs for themselves. They still lived close to eachother, went hunting to the woods surrounding them.

Their house was the one right in the middle, making it easy to look over all the houses. As Donghyuck changed into his camouflage he could already make out Jaehyun’s form in the crowd of people. He went closer to him, now on two legs, stark naked as he was brought to this world.

"If you go out unallowed, make sure to at least take some clothes with you, so you won’t go around like this when you come back" his mother said without even looking at him, currently cutting up the meat. Donghyuck knew that even though his mother sounded calm, she was probably furious as she was all the time he went against a rule.

"Why would I tire out myself with that when not a single soul comes here" what he said was actually true, since there was nothing people would come for here. Hiking paths and places were away from them, their territory was full of trees and bushes very close to eachother that only animals could easily walk through them. There has only been very few times wolves and humans have met up there and it usually ended with the humans being frightened to death by them.

"You never know what the future holds for you, it can be full of suprises and one of them can easily be a human coming here for some reason" his mother, Jiyeon finally looked at him and gave him a hard stare. "Go home and dress up. I want you here by the bonfire as soon as possible. We’re going to talk about your punishment in the morning."

"Yes mother" Donghyuck was used to the strict side of his mother, but she was full of love on the inside. Being the mate of the pack leader came with a big responsibility and it didn’t help that he has this kind of behaviour. His relationship with his father wasn’t the best, but they loved eachother besides all the negativity.

As he was walking home, people who were cutting up the meat on tables welcomed him and as he was smiling back he made eye contact with his brother. Jaehyun was giving him his angry stare, but when Donghyuck showed him two thumbs up with his megawatt smile, his frown was replaced with a quiet laugh. Jaehyun is still learning how to be a pack leader and in a few months, he will become one but he still doesn’t know how to properly reprimand his younger brother. Donghyuck knows he’ll still get a talk from him, but it’ll end with a hug.

It was quiet and dark inside their house, which meant his father was already out helping his pack. He usually waits for Donghyuck in their living room when he goes out, ready to give a talk about how he should live his life. Not like he was listening to what he was saying, he always zoned out after the first time it happened.

He walked up to his room and searched for a hoodie which can keep him warm for hours. In his camouflage form he would start to feel cold after a few hours, wolf blood be damned. As he put on the plain black hoodie, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. His mouth and chin was covered with dry blood, some spots could be seen on his nose too. He looked down at his hands and it was full of dirt and blood underneath his nails. With a sigh he went to the bathroom which was in his room, hallelujah, and started cleaning himself.

As he was looking down the now red colored water, he felt calm. He was actually quite proud of himself, the deer he caught was bigger than the ones he usually would go for. Donghyuck was thinking that maybe he could go back for it tomorrow if there would be any left and have a feast again when he caught on a scent coming his way. There goes his calm and peace.

"You went out again" his brother came into the bathroom and stood next to the sink he was currently leaning over. He turned around with an eye roll and grabbed a towel to dry his face.

"What a discovery, genius" Donghyuck snorted and looked back at Jaehyun. When he got a glimpse of how he looked like, he threw his head back and let out a huge laugh. "Oh my god, what the fuck are you wearing?"

His brother was wearing the traditional pack leader clothes what is always seen on their father, but Jaehyun has a different set. The cloak consist of deeply respected animal skins and fur sewn together what they can easily drape over their head and shoulders. It’s very long, coming down to the ankles, usually having 3 or 4 animals in it. Jaehyun’s has 3; the top is a brown bear, its head is like a hoodie, respected for its power. The bottom is a deer, respected for being fast and at the waist level is a fox’s tail, respected for its wittiness. Their father almost has the same ones, the only difference is that he has deer antlers on top of the bear head, meaning the wisdom he holds.

But Donghyuck is not used to see his brother in this ridiculous outfit, only wearing shorts underneath it. He doesn’t look intimidating at all, which is the whole point in wearing it.

"Don’t laugh" he whines "Is it that bad?"

"Well, maybe if you cover your face with it and then it can’t be seen how squishy it looks. Maybe, that would help, but I’m not sure. I’m suprised you haven’t lost hope to still be that feared pack leader you want to be."

"Wow, thanks. I don’t even know why I asked you this question, I knew I wouldn’t get anything nice out of it" he grumbled. "I should have just gone straight to the scolding part."

"Please don’t. Please spare it for today, I wouldn’t get to hear anything new anyways. I still have to listen to Father’s story and I don’t think I could take it with your scolding beforehand. "

"I don’t like your attitude Donghyuck. Our Father’s stories are full of wisdom, morals and lessons. Maybe if you would listen, you could actually see the purpose of them" Donghyuck smelled that his brother’s scent spiked up, meaning that he started to get angry. It wasn’t wise to start an argument with Jaehyun because it usually ended with one of them crying (meaning, Donghyuck).

"The actual problem is that I do listen, that’s why it gets boring. He already told his stories and he’s just repeating them" he muttered underneath his breath, but Jaehyun still heared it crystal clear.

"And that’s why they are so magnificent, because nobody gets tired of them and everyone listens with sparkling eyes!" as Jaehyun was speaking, his own eyes were sparkling too, getting excited over the tales he’s going to hear for the hundredth time tonight.

"I do, I’ve just told you" Donghyuck mumbled, but his brother wasn’t listening to him, already out the door, wearing a huge smile on his face.

"You better get ready quick, it starts in a minute!" he shouted behind his shoulder, walking down the stairs.

As Donghyuck stepped out the front door, his pack members were already sitting in a circle, listening to his talking father. He hurried over, sitting down in the front next to Jaehyun who didn’t even take his eyes off of their father.

Donghyuck hunched over and hugged his knees, only staring at the ground because he knew the second he looked up, he would meet with the disappointed eyes of his father. And he already had enough of that this week, thank you very much, even though it was only Thursday.

"…we knew about them in the old days too and since the day they showed up, they became the most feared race amongst the wolves. To this day, we don’t know how far does their knowledge go, if they know about the other species and monsters around them" he listened in to know which story would be for tonight.

He knows this one just as well as the other tales, but it always leaves him feeling nervous and on the edge because it actually contains dangerous real life events, that keep happening even today.

"It is still unknown to us why they only ever attack our kind, we have made a few ideas about them: it could be a beef that goes way back to the days where the wolves were too aggressive and went around killing people or there still is the presumption that they only know our species."

Donghyuck doesn’t know why the wolves haven’t actually tried to talk to them to understand why are they doing this, but he has been too afraid to ever mention this idea to anyone. Would be stupid to just go up to your enemy and ask right away what is their problem, wouldn’t it?

"The only thing we are and were always sure about is that they are dangerous. They are ruthless and like to capture and torture our brothers and sisters to get to know about our weaknesses. They don’t care if it’s a cub, a youngling or and adult. They don’t show mercy even if you change into your camouflage."

He choked up at the thought of cubs and youngsters murdered down. They would be toddlers and kids in human age and he can’t even imagine that these people live peacefully after slaughtering down families.

"Hunters" his father spat it out with as much disgust as a man could "are today’s plague. There are more fearful and deadly creatures than them, but they are the most dangerous because all they do is hunt down our kind. They are out there only for us. They don’t have any other intention but to massacre us until we officially die out."

Donghyuck felt his heartbeat quicken, already knowing what will be his father’s next words. He always known from the first time, that his father only meant it for him.

"Their tactics are getting better and better from time to time. Nowadays they try to figure out who is a wolf even in camouflage form. They now have ways for that too. They watch and listen. Just as you should" he swallowed and looked up at his father, feeling his eyes already on him.

Fierce eyes stared back at him, his father tried to look as intimidating as he could, bringing out his dominance. And it worked, like it always does, and Donghyuck’s body went rigid with fear. Those words are a warning for him, everytime.

"Because if you don’t, if you go against your ancestors and go out there all alone, on your own, you are an easier target to them. They would have your head in five seconds five meters from your body. Remember. A lone wolf" his eyes stayed on Donghyuck the whole time" is a dead wolf."

Donghyuck thought he would pass out from how fast he was breathing, his pulse was now almost in the air and it felt like his heart would rip itself out of his body any second.

The only thing that calmed him down was when he felt his brother’s hand on his, his alpha pheromones were almost leaking out of him, meaning he was trying his best to calm down Donghyuck. He grabbed Jaehyun’s hands tightly and tried to focus on himself.

Even though his family thought he was alone, he wasn’t. He would always have his Jaehyun.

He would do anything to prevent something happening to Donghyuck.

He was safe.

Hunters were never seen here anyways.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thank you guys for the kudos and comments, they really made me feel goodTT  
> Also, stream boom!! the song is LIT, just as the other on the album!  
> also excuse it if there are any mistakes, just call me out on it, it's 4 am here TT

"How many times do we actually have to tell you, that what you are doing is completely insane and stupid? One day I’ll be waiting for you to come back home and you won’t. Do you know how much that would break me?"

That’s how Donghyuck’s mornings always start. Usually his mother or father is reprimanding him for the things he has done the day before, but God save him when they team up on him and cut each other’s sentences just to say the same thing.

Today, it’s only his mother. She hardly ever uses the you’ll die one day and won’t come home to me card, but it looks like the tale of the hunters has gotten into her head last night.

"It would take me to my grave, Donghyuck. You know that for us, family is the first priority. I don’t know what I would do without any of you."

It was a fact, that for wolves, family affects their life as much as money does for humans. Wolves convert their surroundings to the favor of their loved ones, of their pack. They mate for life, only once, and if something happens to their mate, it’s certain that the other one would fall into deep depression. If they die, the mate who was left behind would soon follow, because of the pain of losing their other half.

It’s a very miserable process, that affects the whole pack, usually going into grieving for months. Losing a family member can have a come out in many ways. There have been cases where both or one of the parents couldn’t bear the pain, where the siblings were the ones deeply affected. Those who could live through it weren’t the same for decades, grief tearing up their heart for years.

Though these kind of events don’t happen often nowadays, wolves usually gone by sickness in their elder days. However, in the past where wars and hunters were more common, wolves and packs didn’t last as long.

"I know my words don’t matter as much to you as your Father’s or brother’s, but my love, my bond for you is stronger than theirs. Please, for the sake of your poor mother’s heart, stop going out alone. Could you promise that for me?" his mother looked deeply in his eyes and Donghyuck could feel the pull, the omega in him, his wolf telling him to go up and cuddle her, confront her.

But it’s not like they agree in every single thing, for example in what to do now.

"I could lower the number of times I would go out alone, if you want. I could promise that to you" Donghyuck fiddled with his hands, trying not to gaze back at her mother, knowing the disappointed face she made at him for his answer.

"Donghyuck, I can’t physically stop you from going out, but your Father and brother could do it. I don’t want to restrain you, I just don’t understand why are you so committed on always being alone. You have so many friends in the pack, you have us, but you rather go alone possibly facing death!"

"Not like Jaehyun would pin me down to the ground..." he mumbled under his nose, not wanting to go through this again. He has explained this to them so many times, but his parents just don’t get it. It’s too unusual for them that a wolf could feel independent, wanting to do things on their own.

Sometimes when Donghyuck would think about why he was the only one like that, the freak who didn’t want to count on his pack, preferably accomplishing things by himself, the only fact he could think of was his role.

Being the only tracker in the pack, he had to figure out how it works by himself as the others don’t have as sensitive nose as him, their help would have been useless. This made him to learn on his own since he was little, making him more independent. It wasn’t helping that he also had to track the scents alone, on his own since the others couldn’t smell them.

But it’s not like his parents would understand it if he voiced out his thoughts on this, thinking the reason he usually says ("I don’t know mom, I just feel that way and I don’t have a problem with being alone!") is stupid. Plus he himself isn’t even sure it is connected to his role, as he has never met another tracker like himself. Wolves with this high sense were hard to find, the example being his own pack, because he was only the third one over the centuries they go back to.

"Not like your Father wouldn’t" his mother turned her back to him and continued doing his lunch for school. Donghyuck rolled his eyes at the threat, even though it was mostly true. As his father was the leader, he had to make sure everyone obeys to him and doesn’t go against his rules. If someone does choose otherwise, it wouldn’t matter who is it, he would have to show them where they belong, by using his dominance.

"Where are they anyways, missing breakfast. Jaehyun never leaves out on food" he looked around in the kitchen, taking in the extinct room, not an often seen sight.

There’s usually a rush in the morning, his parents getting ready for work, his father greeting the other wolves and speaking with them, now always bringing Jaehyun with him to show what will be his job. Having these super confidental meetings with the sub-leaders and counsellors every morning. He can smell that both of them left a while ago, their scent not being as strong.

"They went out for a patrol."

"What? Why? In the morning? We never do that. Why didn’t they bring us with them?" Donghyuck asked confused. They always patrolled the area at night, 4 or 5 times a week in groups of two, being hidden in the dark. He liked the patrolling because he was always assigned with one of his friends and it usually ended with them fooling around and not taking it seriously at all.

"Your Father only took his confidants with himself. He suddenly woke up at dawn feeling that something was not right, so he went out to check the area" his mother dropped his packed lunch in front of him and Donghyuck was already drooling because of the rare deer meat smell.

"But don’t worry about it, you should be out the door by now."

"Yeah I know, but I was hoping I could at least meet them before school" he puckered up his lips and picked up his backpack. Donghyuck thought high school was okay, he didn’t think of it in a negative way as the normal, human high schoolers. He actually liked to learn about old and new things, liked being this close to humans to study their behaviour. And it was a plus that some of his close packmates went there too.

"I’m sorry honey, you should hurry home after school then to be home with us rather than going to that greasy restaurant with the boys you love so much" his mother lifted one of her eyebrows, hating the fact that his son eats there every week, poisoning his healthy body with those chemicals.

"Yeah, no" Donghyuck wrinkled his nose and with a gleaming smile he said goodbye to his mother.

Stepping out the door he couldn’t smell anything weird or unusual that doesn’t belong here, so he calmed down and walked towards the black SUV parking before his house. He could already hear the loud hiphop music, meaning it was Yuta driving today.

"Hey, who let the pup sit in the front?" he asked loudly as he opened the passenger seat door and saw Jisung sitting in his place.

"Not a pup" spoke up the above mentioned, looking up with squinted eyes "Kun let me. "

"Kun hyung!" Donghyuck whined, shaking his whole body "Why would you do something like that to me? You know that’s my place!"

"Can’t he sit there for one ride?" Kun sighed, already feeling a headache coming this early in the morning. He was sitting at the back with Chenle as always, the only thing missing was Jisung from beside them.

"No, that is mine!" Donghyuck growled, feeling the animalistic instinct inside him rise that someone wanted to take something that is his.

"Just sit at the back or he’s gonna keep throwing a tantrum over this" Jeno said, not even looking up from his phone with Renjun’s hand in his.

"Wanna fight for it?" he was already in Jisung’s face giving him a wicked smile that showed him his changed teeth.

"No, it’s all yours you idiot" Jisung murmured as he was already getting out of the car to sit in the back behind Jeno and Renjun.

Donghyuck was sporting a satisfied grin as he sat down, turning up the volume of Yuta’s music. As he looked at the said person, he was staring back at him with amused eyes, trying not to smile. Donghyuck just lifted his eyebrow at him that woke him up and started the car with a laugh.

"Everyone has their things, right? I’m not turning back" Yuta said while looking at the rear mirror.

"Yes hyung!" came the answer in chorus and with that they could get going.

As they were driving down the road and Donghyuck was looking out at the passing scenery in the window, he got reminded of the morning patrol. If there would have been anything dangerous they would know about it by now, but he can’t help to wanting to know more about what happened.

He wasn’t sure if he should bring this up in the presence of his friends, but Yuta and Kun must have information about this, since they are Jaehyun’s confidants, Yuta being the sub-leader and Kun the counsellor.

"Hyung.." he clears his throat "you went out with Jaehyun hyung in the morning too, right?

"What? Where did you hear that?" Yuta choked out hoarsely, quickly taking his eyes off the road to take a look at Donghyuck. At this, he could feel everyone’s stare focusing on them, Chenle stopped playing with the window and Jeno finally looking up from his phone.

"Don’t dance around the answer hyung, you do know how I would know about it" Donghyuck spoke louder, getting angry at the fact that Yuta would even think about lying to him at an issue like this. He must have smelled his scent spiking up, because he looked at Donghyuck again and chewed on his lips.

"Look, you guys don’t have to worry about anything, it wasn’t serious at all, our Leader just felt as if someone just stepped foot onto his territory, so he grabbed Jaehyun and us to explore the woods. He even let us go earlier than the others to go and get ready for school" Yuta told fast, not wanting to say more than he could because he was supposed to keep even this a secret.

"It really was nothing, we couldn’t scent anyone" Kun spoke up softly, bringing out his omega voice. "Maybe someone just got way too close to our borders."

"And you wanted to keep this away from us?" Renjun asked "Or you planned on keeping this away from everyone? Because I don’t like that you won’t tell me about possible threats, I can’t train the others harder like that to have them ready for a fight."

Renjun, having the role of a tutor, is pretty cautious, wanting to know about dangers that would harm his pack, so that he could prepare them how to act and fight in different situations. Tutors have a great sense in fighting and strategies, noticing the enemies weak points much faster. Him being a beta is especially good, because with his dominance level he could easily go up against alphas. He always trains them hard, helped Donghyuck in a lot of things so that he could stand his ground too. The only thing Donghyuck doesn’t like is that after every training, he feels dead and he’s basically choking on his own sweat.

"I’m sorry, but it wasn’t my decision" so that means his father didn’t want anyone to know about this. He wonders why, but maybe he just didn’t want to cause unnecessary panic.

Everyone went quiet after that and Donghyuck already regretted that he couldn’t wait until they were alone to ask Yuta about this. He cleared his throat again and started singing the lyrics of some stupid song of Yuta’s playlist, that actually had some juicy parts but he wasn’t one to judge.

A few minutes passed by and the mood went back to normal again. Chenle continued playing with the window, rolling it up and down, Jeno and Renjun were back in their own little romantic world watching God knows what on their phone, Jisung probably sleeping and Kun just being peacefully Kun.

Yuta was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, humming quietly to himself in the tempo Donghyuck was singing.

It was all good until all of a sudden, Donghyuck got a scent that choked him up. He began to cough violently, not being able to breath even though the smell wasn’t that strong. Yuta worriedly gazed over at him and he could feel someone gently slapping his back. He knew that wouldn’t help since he wasn’t actually just coughing, but the scent was squeezing his lungs and burning his nose.

He literally felt like he could die any second.

"T-he..Win..Window.. " he croaked out, his throat clenching and unchlenching. He continued coughing and breathing became harder and harder until he could hear himself making whistling sounds.

Out of nowhere, a calming scent suddenly filled his nose, making him breath deeply, his body going loose. He didn’t even notice Jeno grabbing his head and putting it to his neck, so he could breath closely to his scent glands.

He could also smell Yuta emitting his pheromones, making the whole car reek of the two alphas. He felt embarrassed about having them do this and about the others having to bear the scents too. It was like doing a hotbox with tons of weed, making them incredibly relaxed and calm.

Jeno pushed his head away but still held it with his hands and gazed all over him, making sure he was okay.

"Thanks" Donghyuck slurred out.

"Are you okay?! What happened?" Kun asked, but he was sounding as drunk as Donghyuck. That made him giggle.

"I just… Got a scent that was really bad. I think it was a rotting animal" he gulped. Not in the right state of mind now, he had to make up something that would be believable, because he knew this wasn’t something they should talk about in the moment. 

"I hate your fucking nose" Renjun mumbled without opening his eyes, his head laying on Jeno’s shoulder. Donghyuck felt sorry for his friend, knowing about his relationship with said lad. They were so close to mating, already over courting and currently being partners. The temptation was big for them, this situation of Jeno’s pheromones not helping at all. But a special someone kept them waiting, even though said someone didn’t know about these wolf things. Only they knew about how they felt, telling the other pack members and their parents they just don’t want to rush things.

"I didn’t plan getting high on alpha pheromones in the morning, but I’m not complaining" Chenle muttered, making everyone giggle in the car, especially those who were in the same state as him (which meant except Jeno and Yuta)

When they got to Mountain High School, they were already sober, thanks to rolling down the windows just a little bit, being afraid of another fit Donghyuck could get. They were walking inside when he felt the same scent again, albeit much weaker, but still there. Like something was continuously tickling his nose. Yeah, not the best feeling.

Inside they said goodbye to Kun and Yuta as they weren’t in the same class as the younger ones. Not like they had to go to school, they were already over the age, but only the pack knew about this. When Jaehyun started his training as a future pack leader, he had to drop out of school, making his two best guys go instead of him, to look out for the "pups".

Even as they weren’t the same age with Chenle and Jisung, the five of them went to the same class, because the pack didn’t want any of them to be alone in school, holding back Renjun, Jeno and Donghyuck for two years from going to school.

Donghyuck could smell so many different things in here, from delicious to plain disgusting, but he already learnt how to close out all these scents and only focus on one or two, those being his packmates scents.

As they walked down the corridor, he was hit with a scent he couldn’t put anywhere. It was really good, making him growl deep inside his chest, but it was like something was covering the real scent, like a sheet wrapped around it. And that sheet was not smelling good at all, it was purely repellent.

Donghyuck wanted to find the one smelling like this and rip those fucking sheets off them, then rub his head all over them, masking them in only his scent. Maybe even pee on them.

But he couldn’t just go after his nose, he had to follow his friends and be there on time to his class.

He didn’t even step a foot into the classroom when he smelled Renjun’s and Jeno’s scent getting sweeter, meaning that special someone wasn’t missing school today either.

He still laughed at the hopeless love looks on their faces, although they always make that face when Na Jaemin is in the same room as them. The big mouthed playboy of the school was almost in his usual all black outfit today, the only thing ruining it was his black and white striped sweater.

Donghyuck wasn’t a liar, the guy looked pretty handsome, but for wolves, it was always the scent that attracted them first, and for him, Jaemin smelled nothing special. But for poor Jeno and Renjun, the guy smelled just as amazing as they smelled to each other. Having not one, but two mates were very rare and unheard of, but having a human wear that scent you want to smell your whole life? Impossible and never heard of, since mating and partnering with humans were forbidden for wolves. His heart always ripped in half when he thought about how they will always feel that something is missing from their life, that something being Na Jaemin.

The bell has rang a few minutes ago already, but the teacher was nowhere, so Donghyuck killed time with doing a paper airplane. When the door opened, the poor paperplane got crushed in his hands from the scent that entered the room.

It was the one he smelled. That particular scent with the repelling aftertaste. But he was the only one out of his packmates that could actually smell the touch of another scent. And he immediately knew what was that sheet wrapped around him, the repelling smell.

"Good morning guys! I would like to introduce two new classmates for you. Please step forward gentlemen! Please take care of them!" Donghyuck was trembling as he looked up, not ready yet to look at the boy emitting this scent.

"Hi, my name is Wong Yukhei but you can call me Lucas too" the taller one introduced himself, smelling like wood and tangerines, with a touch of that horrible scent.

"Hey, I’m Mark"

As the boy opened his mouth, Donghyuck couldn’t take it and looked at him. He was mesmerised with what he saw. From the black hair, to those sparkling eyes, down that muscular body. It was almost too good to be true.

Almost, because that scent, that fucking scent ruined everything. That touch of shit, that almost choked him in the car, the one that was tickling his nose from the time they got here, the one that was keeping him off from literally abducting the boy to take him to his nest.

The fucking wolfsbane. The fucking plant that kills wolfs. The fucking deadly weapon hunters use to kill them.

Donghyuck didn’t know what to do. He never encountered wolfsbane before, nor the ones that used it. He never met someone that smelled like him. It was too much at this moment.

He panicked.

He packed his things and stood up, ready to flee.

"Oh Donghyuck, how nice of you to offer your seat!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually imagined Jaemin wearing that outfit as in the boom mv.. Jaemin pretty much owned this era and he's not even my biasTT  
> and wolfsbane is actually deadly for humans too, but let's just pretend that it's not


	3. Chapter 3

Donghyuck’s body froze down, just as his brain. Only his eyes were moving around, from his teacher to the boy now standing alone, from him to his packmates who were staring at him in worry and confusion.

He opened his mouth to speak up but nothing came out, feeling like there was a desert inside. He licked his lips, his heartbeat picking up again but Donghyuck knew he shouldn’t panic this time, look where he got himself with the first. He didn’t want to risk getting into an even worse situation.

 _"_ _What’s going on?"_ he heard the question in his head. If he was in his natural form, his ears would be twitching and moving around, trying to guess where it came from.

Wolves are not only strong because of their strategies and cooperation, but due to their communication skills. They can understand each other without saying a word, even in their camouflage form. In a fight it’s really effective, since their enemies could be surprised by suddenly changing plan and giving an unexpected attack.

 _"_ _Have you officially gone nuts Hyuck?"_ Jeno asked.

"I..maybe" he croaked out.

Then he panicked again, because yes, he did just say that out loud, when he could have just communicated with the others. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him, Donghyuck was never one to stand down and flee. He was always ready to go up against any of his packmates, he is fierce and bold.

The only difference that is scaring him shitless right now, is the fact that now it isn’t about one of his pack member, but this boy who is potentially a hunter, the race he must stay away and hide from or to kill at any given opportunity.

Yet, the only thing going on inside his head is to jump at him. Though not to tear out his throat, but to leave his scent all over him and vice versa. He is only panicking because he has never experienced this feeling, no one in his pack had a scent that could even come close the boy’s.

And that scent had a bad layer on it. Donghyuck hasn’t got a clue why they would suddenly turn up here when they had been hiding so well for so long. His ancestors chose this place because it’s high up in the mountains, known about its wild animals, even normal wolves could be found here.

Up till now, he has never smelled wolfsbane here, which means the fearful thing he hoped would never happen reached his home too. There are hunters in the city and this boy is not just potentially a hunter, he IS one.

"Well, you have to choose. It can’t be maybe, just yes or no" his teacher smiled kindly at him, hoping Donghyuck would finally be nice and sociable.

Even if they were given the opportunity to go to school, they were not allowed to make any contact with the other humans, just with their own. This made them known between the teenagers, thinking they were some rich, scary kids. Scary, because they could feel their higher dominance despite the fact they never released them, deep inside humans could sense the danger they hold.

"I…" Donghyuck looked around, saw the taller boy already sitting by someone else and many unoccupied seats, some next to other students. However, when he thought about the boy sitting next to someone else, his wolf got furious. But when he thought about him sitting close to Donghyuck, he felt scared to death. Stupid wolf feelings.

"Yeah" he cleared his throat and sat down slowly, not daring to look up.

 _"_ _What?! You can’t do that!"_ someone shouted.

 _"_ _That’s prohibited!"_ he clearly heard Chenle shout with his high pitched voice.

 _"_ _WHAT’S GOING ON?"_ someone who strangely sounded like Jisung screamed, thus everyone grabbed their head in pain. Donghyuck scrunched his eyes, rubbing his temple. Jisung being underaged still counted as a pup, he was quite messy and disorganised. He was actually the one you couldn’t let out alone on his own, being lost for a half day one time nobody went with him.

Donghyuck felt a breeze passing by and as he breathed in, that beautiful scent hit him again, making him shudder. And then swallowing back a gag. Uh. Fucking wolfsbane. He felt his nose twitching.

"Hello" he heard it from his right, but that was just enough to get his heart wanting to jump out of his body. He took a quick look at the boy and he felt his face burn up. What is this feeling? Will he become a drooling loser like Jeno and Renjun? He didn’t want to have feelings for a human! Did they feel this desperate too when they saw Jaemin for the first time?

"Uh...I’m like, well Mark. That’s um, my name, yeah, uh, what’s yours?" this Mark sounded plain awkward and boring, did it really have to be this guy? At least they would make a good couple, the two losers.

Still, as hard as he tried to make fun of him and speak bad, he couldn’t help but notice how cutely he fidgeted with his fingers, squirmed in his seat as if he was too nervous talking to Donghyuck. But wait, what if he was?! Or maybe he really was just this awkward?

But Donghyuck could hear Mark’s heart beating hundred times per second, so this must mean he really was nervous!

However, he felt the same way so they wouldn’t really have a nice talk now and that brought down his mood. Will he actually be able to talk to him at all? This thing, whatever this is actually, whatever he and his wolf feel for this Mark.. it would be ephemeral. If he gets too close to him, the others would feel his scent and Donghyuck’s scent would linger on Mark for a much longer time.

Of course the lovey-dovey couple’s situation was much harder, there speaking of three people, not two, but they haven’t approached Jaemin either after all this time.

Should he just let it be and not care at all? If he doesn’t answer, Mark will think he’s an asshole and that would be it.

But they don’t sit together with Jaemin, like how he is with Mark. Albeit, if he acts like an asshole maybe Mark would just sit elsewhere and leave Donghyuck alone.

Except that he would be acting like a very angry wolf all the time, looking at his prey that slipped out of his fingers and that wouldn’t end well.

What should he do?! He was literally having a crises over a simple what’s your name question, not acting like a normal human being.

But wait, he should act like one then. His classmates are pretty friendly with each other, once they even tried to befriend with them, but got ignored of course. Though, that would be weird if he tries to befriend Mark all of a sudden, then they (mainly Donghyuck) would be the topic for days.

Should he risk it? There must be ways to keep this a secret. He could even help Renjun and Jeno with their playboy trouble if he gets experience.

Or should he just talk about this with Jungwoo? No, he can’t know about these things. Even though they are seat mates and good friends with Yuta, he’s still a human. He mustn’t know about their love interest. And the reasons why he can’t just go up to him and talk to him.

Did he even answer anything yet? Did Mark think he’s a complete idiot? How much time have passed? This was so embarrassing, he must look like some fucking retard who can’t even remember his name. What is he even doing by the way? This is so not Donghyuck right now, he doesn’t need to compare himself to other people.

He is determined and confident! He doesn’t care if others agree with his decisions and if his nose chose Mark, then Mark it is!

Well, not like it would be that simple, but Donghyuck is also a positive man!

"I’m Donghyuck" seeing the way Mark flinched he said it much louder than he would have had to. He felt the blush on his cheeks reappear and turned his head back forward. What a loser he is. He shouldn’t be this self-conscious because of some pity human.

"Uh yeah, I actually remembered after I asked because the teacher said your name" Mark mumbled and Donghyuck gazed at him to see he isn’t the only one sporting a pink face.

The hard thing was to ignore all the screams and swears directed at him from his packmates in his head, trying to focus on class. But then again, let’s be honest, he was trying to focus on something other than class.

That something being the raven haired boy next to him. Donghyuck has been watching him closely, his pretty handwriting as he was taking notes (he himself not minding to do the same), the crease between his eyebrows when he is trying to understand something. The beautiful, little sparkle in his dark brown eyes.

Donghyuck also noticed that those engaging eyes would often flicker to look at him, gone as quickly as they saw him staring. Mark’s pink tongue often showed itself, licking over his chapped lips, making Donghyuck quiver like a bitch in heat. Which he actually was sometimes, due to the mating months.

Every wolf has their own mating cycle, since the day their hormones have risen. From then on, in every third month they would feel the need to mate, to reproduce. It is kind of a living hell, because only partnered or mated wolves could help out each other, others who are still in search of their loved ones are leaved on their own.

Which really is plain misery, having to suffer from uncontrollable heats or ruts, craving for pleasure you would never get. These days wolves usually lock themselves in their house until it ends, but they are completely aware of their surroundings. They won’t lose their mind and think about mating only, but they can’t really go out either because their smell could be still too desirable to others.

Donghyuck knows his heat scent would probably have no effect on Mark, but he is curious if it could be humanly possible to at least smell that his scent went sweeter, even if Mark would feel it only a little.

But that does start making the engines turn in his brain, thinking about how Mark would smell aroused. His scent was already sweet on its own if he dug under the wolfsbane, the smell of watermelon and lily mixing together. It was an easy scent to remember, which was good and bad too. Good for Donghyuck, to always know where he was inside the school, bad for Donghyuck, that his packmates could easily smell him.

Not like there would be anything to smell on him in the future, he would only stare at Mark from the distance. And like now, when he was this close.

He didn’t even notice the bell ringing and students floating out the door into the hallway, only when Mark stood up too and stretched his arm out to Donghyuck, who spluttered in surprise, trying to get himself together since only one second ago he was still staring at Mark like a lovesick puppy.

"I thought that like.. You would need this.." Donghyuck didn’t see he was actually holding something in his hand "since you hadn’t really taken any notes.."

Donghyuck hadn’t felt this ashamed since his very first time on a hunt as a pup, when he saw something long slithering on the ground that terrified him so much he sprinted all the way back home, then finding out it was only his mother’s tail.

His staring wasn’t as subtle as he thought it was, but if Mark knew he was glaring only at him during the lesson and didn’t even say anything, he should take it as a positive sign, shouldn’t he? And was this flirting or teasing, giving Donghyuck his notes?

"I um, already took a picture of it, you can take it" Mark said as Donghyuck made no move to reach for it.

"..Thanks, I guess.." Donghyuck touched the piece of paper, careful not to have any physical contact with him and stuffed it in his bag. They stood there awkwardly for a second and before Mark could say anything else, Donghyuck speeded out of the room, his friends closely following after him.

He went to his locker to get the paper out of his bag before he forgets about it and leaves it inside, making all his belongings smelling like watermelons. Not like that was something he wouldn’t want, but Jaehyun often came into his room and him being territorial and all, would pick out the foreign scent in a minute.

"What the hell was that Donghyuck?!" just as he tossed it inside, Jeno grabbed his elbow and turned him in their direction. He looked as mad as his partner, with Chenle and Jisung standing behind them wearing a confused expression.

"Don’t fucking grab me like that" he growled out as he ripped his arm from Jeno’s grip and rested his head on his locker. "I don’t know either okay? Couldn’t you just ask nicely?" he sighed.

"Okay, I’m sorry, but Hyuck you shouldn’t have done that! What if the others find out? Yuta will have to report it to your brother" he whispered in fear.

"You know what, I’m already sick of these what should and shouldn’t we do’s and if Yuta and Kun can have human friends, we can have one too!" he snarled, which made all of them back up a few steps. Of course that made him feel guilty the second he saw, but he couldn’t help the rage inside him Jeno’s words caused, thinking about Jaehyun forbidding him from seeing Mark.

Wow, he is already that deep in from just his scent and awkwardness. Huh. Interesting.

"But they didn’t want to befriend them on purpose..like you" Renjun looked at him and stepped closer to him.

"Well, not like you wouldn’t want to befriend Jaemin" he huffed as he turned back towards them, crossing his arms.

"That’s not the same, why would you even bring that up!" Renjun snapped at him and wanted to get closer but Jeno held him down and gave Donghyuck a disappointed face.

"Trust me. It is" he said quietly and sidestepped his packmates. That made everyone stop as they looked after him in shock. The pack brothers eyed each other and silently made an agreement that this wasn’t the right time to speak about it with Donghyuck and went after him to their next class.

The rest of the lessons went by quickly, though in PE when they were running their usual rounds, Donghyuck sensed Mark getting closer to him and as he looked behind himself he saw that he was indeed staring at him. Donghyuck got pretty nervous as his scent was only getting closer and closer so he jogged up to Jisung and stayed next to him. That made Mark fall back too.

As lunch time arrived, Donghyuck has never felt this tense mood between their packmates and he really didn’t want Yuta and Kun to notice because they would do anything to get the information why the pups are feeling this down.

"I’m okay. I’m just very confused right now. And stressed. But okay. We’ll talk about it, I promise.. Just not now please" he whispered over the table when they sat down at their usual place in the corner. They looked up at him with curious, but understanding eyes and nodded.

The next second Chenle started talking about some stupid video game what made all of them whine and argue, that was the scene the others arrived to.

"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod" Jungwoo came running towards them with his plate of food (which smelled disgusting by the way, Donghyuck always wanted to tell him and Taeil what’s inside, but he couldn’t) and sat down excitedly.

The others were close behind, although much calmer, but Yuta had this dazed look in his eyes which was really weird and scary.

"We got new students in our year!" Donghyuck doesn’t know how Jungwoo can speak loudly and softly at the same time, but this was one of his best traits. He loved listening to him speaking.

"Yeah but they look very cold from the outside" Taeil, who is seatmates with Kun nodded, taking a bite of the rice looking smashed something. Seeing his face after, it must taste like it smells to Donghyuck.

"That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be nice! These guys look just like them from the outside, but are babies on the inside!" Jungwoo pointed around their table, cooing at Chenle and grabbing his cheek.

"Hey!" he pouted, but didn’t try to stop him, even though Chenle was much stronger than him. "I look just as cute from the outside!"

"Nah, you all look like ice princes when you guys are together" Taeil said and Kun wiped off his spit full of food of the table with a napkin, disgust clearly seen on his face.

"What’s with him?" Renjun pointed his head at Yuta, who still just sat and stared ahead.

"Don’t mind him, he’s in love" Jungwoo flipped his hand, but because of his answer, Jeno spit out his water and started coughing, Jisung choked on his bloody red meat and Donghyuck’s deer meat fell out of his mouth as he gaped at Jungwoo. "What?" he asked confusedly.

"N-Nothing, just... He isn’t one to just fall in love" Renjun choked out as he was lightly hitting Jeno in the back. They all made eye contact with Kun for a second and that was enough to know this was a serious situation.

"He’s just..so beautiful. Like an angel" Yuta whispered, still only looking into the distance and that freaked out Donghyuck.

"Yeah, they really do look handsome though" Jungwoo spoke as he chewed on his food, Kun already on alert being the cleaning freak he was. "Oh, oh, there they are!" he pointed excitedly towards the cafeteria entrance.

As they all turned back to look, they saw two new faces. One of the boys was quite tall, with a very delicate face and pump lips, but cold eyes that cut through the room like a knife. The black haired one had big, doe eyes and narrow face, looking very put together but just as Jungwoo said, cold as fuck from the outside, with zero emotion on his face.

The only problem was that Donghyuck smelled them before he has seen them. They were reeking of wolfsbane.

Worst problem? Mark, standing next to them with his tall friend. All of them smelling like wolfsbane so strong that Donghyuck couldn’t even scent the watermelons anymore.

It got into his nose, his lungs again, stinging his eyes so badly tears welled up. All he could think about was _hunters, more hunters, more hunters_ , and panic rised in him again for god knows how many times today.

He waited until they found a table and he shoot out of his seat, his friends shouting after him but thankfully staying there. He didn’t want company right now, because he was sure he would slip and tell them about it.

Donghyuck barged into the toilet, quickly finding a grip on the washbasin and tried to pour water onto his face while still holding on, because if he let go he would collapse.

He breathed loudly, making a lot of noise but he couldn’t calm down if all he could smell was the wolfsbane. He reached for the liquid soap and pumped some into his hand, bringing it up to his nose to wash it.

Of course that just made him cough more violently, soap and water running down his throat and making him choke up, but he couldn’t care less when the horrifying smell was disappearing.

He washed his face with water again and again, and just held on the sink for his life tiredly. He was still breathing loudly, but now because of exhaustion. He looked into the mirror and what stared back at him was an awful sight. Red eyes, red nose, saliva dripping from his mouth, all while his face and the end of his fringe was soaking in water.

With a sigh he grabbed some paper towel and wiped his face. His nose was burning from the soap as well as his throat and he felt a headache making its way. All he wanted to do was to bury his nose into the neck of Jaehyun, breath in deeply his calming alpha scent, feel him hug Donghyuck tightly, making him feel safe. He truly missed his brother.

As he was looking at his miserable reflection in the mirror, thinking about how rarely he has seen Jaehyun since he started the pack leader training, a stall behind him opened sending him into his early death by a heart attack.

A rather petite guy walked out, he looked quite worried (after the show Donghyuck put on he shouldn’t be surprised) and as he came towards Donghyuck, he realised they were actually the same height and build, the only difference being the boy’s cat like features.

"Hey, are you feeling good? Those were some nasty noises you made" he addressed Donghyuck with a friendly smile. There was a cheshireness to it, making him think the guy actually enjoyed hearing Donghyuck suffer.

"Yeah, you know..um, allergies" he gave the black haired (why does everyone have black hair since he met Mark?) boy a tired smile.

"That must suck. I’m Ten by the way. New in here" Ten held out his hand and as Donghyuck went in for a handshake the moment they touched he could smell it. Not even the fucking rose soap could hide it.

Wolfsbane.

Donghyuck pulled his hand back as if Ten had burned it and choked out something like "needing air" and sprinted out of the room as fast as he went in.

He did get air though, needing to smell something soothing. He sat down on a bench outside the garden, feeling soulless and completely drained. He didn’t even panic anymore, Donghyuck didn’t have the strength for it.

All that was running through his mind was that a group of hunters arrived in his city. Five of them in his school and who knows how much more outside.

And Mark came with them.

He was fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who are the two hunters? could be trickyyy


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!  
> this chapter has some bloody scenes, with wolves hunting at an animal.. if you can't take it you can just skip the part where they patrol  
> which is like, half the chapter, but you will still know what happened in the end

As the day passed on and Saturday came, Donghyuck couldn’t think nor do anything else besides having hard thoughts on whether he should tell the others about the hunters or not caring about the topic at all. He was so worried about what changes that would bring on the pack, making everybody stressed out and on the edge, that would end with most of the pack members being in their own form. However, this would just attract more attention from the humans living here if they see how the wolf population became bigger.

If his father or Jaehyun would find out, they’d probably order the warriors of the pack to get ready for a secret attack against the hunters. And that was another reason Donghyuck didn’t want to tell anyone, because they wouldn’t care if Mark wasn’t a hunter (even though Donghyuck knew he was and that’s why this is a big problem), they would kill him in a second, only because he lives with them.

He didn’t even want to think about Mark getting hurt, nor getting hurt because one of his packmates. But this was not only about Mark, his best friends could receive serious injuries too, as they are warriors. Jeno, Jisung, Chenle... His stomach churned in fear every time these things came up on his mind.

Jeno was an experienced and strong warrior, his big form as an alpha helped him achieve being a leader in one of the warrior groups they would do as a strategy. Donghyuck was sure he wouldn’t have as much trouble as the younger ones, but he has never fought against hunters.

Chenle and Jisung on the other hand.. let’s just say they could use some more training against other wolves too and Donghyuck knows they don’t have enough practice to go up against someone who uses weapons.

The hunters hadn’t done anything other than spreading some wolfsbane on the edge of the forest where Donghyuck smelled it in the car, so he decided on not telling this to anybody until something actually happens.

Which he hoped won’t ever.

Donghyuck had the morning patrol today with Jisung and after an intense staring while talking telepathically with his brother if he’s feeling okay and why was he bundled up in his room so much, he was finally free to go.

He left the house already changed back to his natural form and followed the fresh lime and lemonade scent Jisung left after himself. As he was heading up the mountain, the muddy ground covered with leafs that was crackling under his paws was soon replaced with beautiful, untouched snow (well, aside from Jisung’s footprints).

As Donghyuck took a deep breath, he could feel he was filled with energy because of the homelike environment. He always felt safer outside, in the woods than in his room as there was nowhere to hide. His tail began to wag crazy as he got a sight of Jisung and he yipped loudly to let the other know about his presence.

Of course, the younger being the scaredy cat he is, jumped a foot in the air before looking at him. Donghyuck was already running to him and he could see the other’s tail wagging fast too.

He slowed down when he got near him and greeted the mostly dark gray wolf by rubbing his head all over him. It was quite hard now that the younger has gotten taller, he could hardly reach Jisung’s jaw. But that didn’t stop him from babying Jisung, as he was trying to groom him even now, licking into his ears which caused them to twitch.

Jisung reacted by snapping his teeth at Donghyuck, but the older one growled back at him. That shut him up in a second and he went down on his tummy, trying to lick Donghyuck’s mouth as an apology. He was just a pup as he is only seventeen, plus him being a beta made it difficult for him to try and balance his dominance, even though Donghyuck already knew he has a higher level dominance than his own, he can’t tell him since Jisung has to figure it out on his own.

He straightened himself, shaking his fur and rose his nose high into the air to see if there was anything close to them they could have as a quick breakfast. He got a hold on a rabbit’s scent and his body posture changed into hunting, his nose pointing forward to the bushes where it was hiding.

He huffed loudly to Jisung, who perked up and looked in the same direction. When he could smell and hear the rabbit breathing, his tail began to wag slowly, gazing back at Donghyuck.

 _"Are we gonna have breakfast? I didn’t have any before I came"_ he licked his lips, his light gray eyes full of sparkle at the idea. _"I’m hungry."_

 _"That’s the plan, yeah"_ Donghyuck answered him while he was trying to figure out how to kill the rabbit in the fastest way possible. As fun as running and chasing after the rabbit sounded, they couldn’t spend much time with it.

 _"Go around the bushes slowly, without making any noise"_ Jisung nodded and got off the ground, moving his legs as slowly and carefully as he could. _"If I charge at the rabbit, it will probably run straight to you to get to the forest."_

Donghyuck was listening if the rabbit made any noise as Jisung got closer to it, but other than its breathing becoming quicker it didn’t try to make a move. Which was what he was hoping for, as he started moving forward, making slow and little steps with his legs.

When he was a few feet away from the bushes the rabbit was hiding in, he looked up at Jisung on the other side and made eye contact with him. With a nod, he pushed himself off the ground and ran inside the bushes, hearing the rabbit running out and then getting attacked by Jisung.

The younger one was fast, not wanting the rabbit to suffer he went for the neck and swiftly snapped it. Of course after that he happily yanked it from side to side, feeling cheerful for a successful hunt. Donghyuck made his way over with little jumps and a madly wagging tail, sniffing at the rabbit.

Jisung growled at him and tried to hide it from Donghyuck, making him jump on his back while he was snarling. They were snapping and barking at each other, both trying to get a hold of the meat, playing tug with it, but with a final snarl from Donghyuck, Jisung quickly let go as if it burnt him.

Donghyuck settled down with the rabbit, sinking his teeth into it and tearing out a piece of meat. Jisung followed him, crawling on his tummy as a sign of submission, all the while whining like a brat until Donghyuck made chuffing sounds from the back of his throat. He dug in like it was a whole five course meal.

After their breakfast, they started the patrol. It was a nice morning, with a slight cold breeze occasionally coming their way, but it was quiet besides some birds chirping and other wild animals walking in the snow.

Their job was to make sure everything was normal, looking for intruders who could be dangerous or lost humans in the forest. They had to observe the snow if it got higher and the population of prey animals, if they decided to wander away in hopes of finding more nutrition.

As they got to a glade in the forest, Jisung excitedly looked at Donghyuck, his whole body shaking in joy at the sight of the untouched snow, asking for permission if he could jump around in it. Donghyuck rolled his eyes but huffed at him, making Jisung bark happily and taking off to the glade.

Donghyuck sat down and chuckled in his head, he would be smiling in his human form right now looking at the young pup. This was actually not allowed to do, since they had to be serious and couldn’t leave each other’s side for a second.

They had to always be on edge, always looking at their surroundings and couldn’t joke around at all. This was why Donghyuck hated coming here with an adult or with his brother and his best friends, they took patrolling more importantly than the youngsters. With his own best friends, he could always have some fun and do stupid things like what Jisung is doing now.

He was a second away from joining him in looking like a fox diving into the snow, when a weird scent made its way up in his nose. His nose twitched from it, making him sneeze. The scent was quite familiar, he just couldn’t get a grip where he could have smelled it before.

He stood up and started sniffing the air, breathing in deeply, trying to follow where it came from. He went around the edge of the glade, constantly sniffing on the ground and in the air. When he got to the opposite side of the glade, the scent of humans hit him in the face.

The scent was already faded, meaning only Donghyuck could still smell it, so it was long ago they were here. He was thinking maybe eleven pm or midnight, but what was a group of humans doing out here in the dark so late?

People wouldn’t hike in dark here, being afraid of the animals and even if a small percent did do it, they would always go to sleep in a tent, where his morning patrolling packmates would find them.

A bad feeling took over his body, looking around to find anything suspicious. But there was nothing outstanding, everything was calm and peaceful, the sun shining at them, making the snow sparkle.

Wait, the snow. What if there was something under it?

Donghyuck dug his nose straight into the snow, bearing with the cold that hit his sensitive body part and started scenting around. Still, he only smelled the humans, but now there were two more scents that were unfamiliar to him, while he could recognize the other scents as he already smelled them somewhere. He just had to remember back where.

As Jisung was still playing around, he didn’t notice the weird behavior of Donghyuck and was jumping up and down. By this, he stirred up the snow and new scents hit Donghyuck in a second.

He immediately identified the scents he smelled before and dread overtook him. He could smell the metal that was covered with wolfsbane under the snow, he could smell Ten and the two other hunters he saw in school, which means the two unfamiliar scents belong to another hunters too.

Donghyuck raised his head in panic, searching for Jisung with his eyes since the younger couldn’t smell the danger under him.

 _"Jisung!"_ he barked loudly at him, making the beta stop what he was doing. _"Wait, no, don’t move!"_ he snarled out, putting as much dominance as he could into it, but Jisung confusedly stared at him and moved forward like Donghyuck said nothing.

That’s when the trouble happened.

Donghyuck couldn’t do anything for a minute, staring in shock at Jisung, who was wailing in pain as the metal cut into his hind leg. It was so loud, as if someone was torturing a cat or went over a dog. Just purely heart shattering. Blood was scattering everywhere around him, but that was the smallest problem right now, when Donghyuck smelled the wolfsbane burning the youngster’s skin.

He rushed to Jisung, whining to him in worry, looking at the bear trap that caught his leg. Jisung was writhing around in agony, and Donghyuck’s heart teared up at every scream he made. He howled into the air, asking for help from his pack but he was sure they could hear Jisung’s cries.

He changed into his camouflage form since he could only be a help like that and grabbed both jaws to open it up, but he pulled his hands back in pain. The wolfsbane burnt his hand, but Donghyuck clenched his teeth and grabbed them again, wanting to get Jisung out as fast as possible.

He shouted in pain as he pried the trap open, Jisung pulling out his leg but still crying being hurt. Donghyuck let go of it and it snapped back together, he drew his hands to his chest and kept his fists balled up.

He didn’t dare look, he could feel the blood running down his arm. But he didn’t have time to feel sorry for himself anyway, crawling to Jisung’s head and taking it into his lap. Jisung kept on whining, making small painful huffs, his injured leg kicking because of the wolfsbane.

Donghyuck whispered to him, petted him all along and let his omega pheromones free with the goal of trying to calm him down since he couldn’t take him back home on his own. Tears were running down on his face, seeing his best friend in such pain, Jisung’s cries nor seeing his little tears on his muzzle weren’t helping either.

His hands were shaking as he was sitting there impotently, he couldn’t do anything to ease his pain. He felt useless, he could hardly breath as if there was a heavy weight on his chest. Donghyuck began to sob when Jisung’s whimpering turned into painful yowling, as the wolfsbane entered deeper into his body, infecting and burning everything in the way.

He was holding Jisung tightly, fearing if he ever let go he would be gone in seconds, when a whine full of worry reached his ears. He looked up to see Jisung’s mother sprinting towards them, his father closely behind, just as his own.

Still whining, she sniffed all over Jisung’s face, licking off his tears, nudging his jaw. She looked at his leg, her ears turning back and forth as she was figuring out what happened. She growled at the bear trap and hunched over Jisung’s body defensively, but her mate picked her off of him.

Jisung’s father has changed into his camouflage form too, hurriedly picking up his body and turning around to run back to the den with him. Donghyuck could only sit and watch, he felt stuck on the ground like something was pulling him down.

Somebody grabbed his face and turned him to look into his eyes. He saw Jaehyun’s wide pupils, glancing all over Donghyuck’s body to check for any injuries. His mouth was moving, probably asking about what happened, but Donghyuck felt deaf, he couldn’t hear anything besides his own rapidly beating heart and Jisung’s cries still ringing in his ears.

He felt his brother’s fingers caringly slip into his hair, caressing his face. He felt a warm breath on his hands, he winced at the feeling and looked over to see a large, black canine sniffing at it. His father looked him in the eyes then rubbed his face into Donghyuck’s, showing his relief.

Donghyuck didn’t know how he got back home, he was only aware of Jaehyun, who was helping him walk and his mother, who ran to him when they arrived and hugged him as if she hasn’t seen him in years.

His condition stayed the same for hours, since everyone could hear Jisung’s suffering, as they were healing him by burning the wolfsbane out of his body. His own burned hands were treated by his mother, but since the wolfsbane didn’t get under his skin, there wasn’t any need for fire. She then held them and gave kisses all over, finishing with a kiss to Donghyuck’s forehead.

He couldn’t get any rest since after a few hours his father called a meeting in front of their house. Donghyuck shuffled out, his only support was Jaehyun who had his arm thrown around his younger brother. They stopped next to their parents, staring ahead at their pack members.

Donghyuck could see his best friend’s red eyes, they looked just like him. It was evident they were crying because of the news and they were sizing up Donghyuck in worry, with sad eyes. He couldn’t dare to look them in the eyes, feeling guilty about what happened.

"As you may all know, one of our pup has gotten hurt in the morning. We stabilized him, the poison was burnt out of his body" his father, Siwon started his speech. "And yes. It was wolfsbane."

The members of the pack made loud noises, but didn’t dare speak.

"It’s only used by hunters. And the fact that it was applied on a trap, which got one of us, makes it even clearer. They have arrived here and they are already out for our blood" his eyes were full of anger as he said it, but his voice was composed, meaning his father made plans by now. What was not the best.

"I believe this couldn’t have happened if the patrolling ones would have given their full attention to their surroundings, since our tracker could have smelled it if he really would have concentrated" Donghyuck cast down his eyes in shame, guilt eating him from the inside.

He shouldn’t have let Jisung play around, they shouldn’t have ever played around. They are the older ones, they should be showing them good example. Donghyuck is almost 20, he should behave more seriously by now. He squeezed his eyes shut, preventing the tears to set free.

"However, the important thing is that now we know about them too. From now on, we are going to patrol in groups of four or five people. We are going to patrol at night before bed too. We are going to watch out for each other, for the pups, much more than in the past. Pups can’t stay alone from now on" Donghyuck would have felt upset at those words before, but now he couldn’t care less if his brother, Yuta or Kun would be with him 24/7.

To be honest, he was still quite shaking from what happened, scared as hell and afraid to let go of Jaehyun for more than five minutes. This won’t be like this tomorrow since he doesn’t think he could actually sustain not being alone for a little time.

And of course, there is the feeling, connected to Mark, that like this he could never speak with him alone. Not like he planned to, but like, what if.

"If somebody thinks they have found a hunter, they shall let us know so we can figure out the true. If the suspicion was right" his father deepened his voice, his eyes turned darker "the hunter must be killed immediately" he snarled out.

Donghyuck spent the rest of the day curled up in his bed, thinking about the things that happened and were said. He didn’t plan his day would go like this, he thought they would come back from the patrol to play with the others and maybe go to the city to have some fun. Maybe chase some cats too, who knows.

Instead here he was, addressing the happenings and feeling guilty about how it was his fault, then feeling even guiltier when he thought about Mark. He shouldn’t think about him, when he was a hunter whose likewise hunter friend almost killed his best friend.

But he just couldn’t imagine that someone as awkward and wretched as Mark would be capable of hurting or killing somebody. He grabbed onto the thought that Mark was not like the others.

At least he really did hope so.

They couldn’t even visit Jisung, the adults said he needed to sleep and as a punishment, the best friends were sent home and gotten their phone taken away. Every wolf knows that in stressful times wolves need the company, they need the calm and the presence of their conspecific. That’s why his father gave him this as a punishment, to know the weight of the happenings.

Still, Donghyuck was the only one they could use to get a grip on the hunters, so he had to go on the night patrol the same day.

Not like he minded, at least he wasn’t closed up in his room with all his thoughts.

When they gathered together outside, Donghyuck noticed that he was the only pup. There were three groups with four wolf in each, one of it led by Jaehyun. His brother didn’t approve his presence, but he couldn’t do anything about it yet, while his father was still the pack leader.

His father explained the plan, that they should split up and patrol different areas in the forest, being careful with every step, only looking at the ground and concentrating on the scents around them. Donghyuck was in a group together with Kun, led by his father’s sub-leader, Ryeowook.

Ryeowook was nice, Donghyuck liked him, they could talk about anything and he was often visiting them since Jaehyun and himself were born.

The patrol was quite boring, since Donghyuck didn’t have to look at the ground, breathing in deeply and actually paying attention every kilometer they walked was enough. Nobody joked around, they were focused, being quiet to listen to the noises around them.

He almost started overthinking again, when suddenly he became so peaceful and dazed his legs nearly gave out. It was like he just set foot onto a flower field, sweet scent entering his nose almost violently.

Watermelon and lilys.

The scent came from a few kilometers away, meaning he was the only one who could smell it. Which was good, because he had enough time to come up with something and try to get away. He immediately knew who the scent belonged to and after the euphoric feeling, he got nervous and scared, just as in the morning.

He had to find Mark before either of his packmates do.


End file.
